The present invention relates to a working centre which is autoadaptive under programmable automation.
In very high precision working centres, the relative movement between the workpiece or part to be worked and a given operating head is commanded by numerical control by means of very costly equipment which ensures very high precision. These working centres operate satisfactorily with operating heads equipped with tools, for example, for drilling, but cannot be adapted for fitting or assembly operating heads, in which a certain position of the workpiece which cannot be determined exactly beforehand because of tolerances of preceding machining operations or play in already fitted kinematic trains must be reached precisely, for example for interconnecting two mechanical parts.
Equipment is known in the art which is proposed which are capable of bringing a particular tool over a given position of a workpiece with a certain approximation and of subsequently sensing the workpiece itself in accordance with a predetermined law until it is arrested exactly in the desired position. In another known machine there has also been proposed an autoadaptive tactile device in which the toolholder is provided with sensors which, as a function of the displacement, for example of a pin with respect to a hole, produce a corresponding displacement of the toolholder by means of servomotors. Both these known machines require very sophisticated and costly electronic apparatus for the command of the part. They moreover have the disadvantage of acting as if mechanically rigid, so that failure of the electronic control to operate may damage the machine.
The object of the present invention is to provide an autoadaptive working centre which does not require any apparatus for controlling the movement after the approximate positioning of the part and which lends itself both to positioning a working tool and to positioning a fitting or assembly tool.